Urgent needs as the shutdown continues

We are a newly formed group of Jewish gardeners who work to address food security issues among the most vulnerable in our communities by growing fresh produce for food pantries. We are deeply concerned about the impact the federal government shut-down will have on food insecurity in our region in the coming weeks.  Here is a summary of the facts for our region as we know them:

• More than 25,000 of 800,000 federal employees who have been furloughed or are working without pay live and work in the St. Louis region.  A yet-uncounted number of federal contract employees are similarly impacted  (source: New York Times, Federal Reserve Bank).

• In St. Louis city and county combined, 6,500 pregnant or nursing mothers and 17,500 infants and children under 5 years old rely on the Women, Infants and Children Nutrition (WIC) program for extra nutritional support. Federal funding is no longer available during the shutdown but some funding already received is being distributed (source: USDA and 2016 Missouri Hunger Atlas).

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• In the city of St. Louis, more than 96,000 residents including 37,000 children under the age of 18, approximately 31 percent of residents, receive assistance through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (food stamps). In St. Louis County, more than 106,000 residents, including 48,463 children under the age of 18, approximately 11 percent of residents, receive food stamp assistance. On Jan. 20 the food stamp recipients received their benefits for February with no other benefits to be distributed until the government reopens (source: NPR, 2016 Missouri Hunger Atlas).

•  Forty-five percent of St. Louis County students and 95 percent of St. Louis city students are eligible for child nutrition programs including the Free and Reduced Lunch and School Breakfast, which is funded through February (source: USDA, 2016 Missouri Hunger Atlas).

• Funding for HUD lapsed on Jan. 1. While some funds are available and rent subsidies will be funded in February, funding will lapse in March and will not be renewed until the federal government reopens. On Jan. 4, a letter was sent to 1,500 landlords asking them to not evict subsidy recipients. Millions of people could be evicted if the shut-down is not resolved (source: curbed.com).

“Lo ta’amod al dam re’echa” is a Biblical commandment. We cannot stand idly by while our neighbors and children suffer. We are compassionate people and need to create urgent actions to support the food insecure in our communities. We strongly encourage our congregations and our community to support those agencies which direct food to those most vulnerable including the Harvey Kornblum Jewish Food Pantry, Operation Food Search or your local food pantry.

Myra Rosenthal, Karen Flotte, Alan Raymond, Wendy Bell, Mikey Wagner and Michael Tzinberg 

I read with disgust the Jan. 16 letter (“Walls work”) about the border wall, making it into a trivial spat about red or blue. The real story is that 800,000 public servants are not getting paid but have to work. These public servants are out there risking their lives, as in the Coast Guard, or helping people obtain affordable housing, like my agency did. I am a retired federal employee. Some employees cannot buy medicines they need because they aren’t receiving a paycheck. So when a federal employee dies for want of cancer treatment they need or insulin, it won’t matter about a wall or what one sees as political. Open the government and pay these patriots before something happens we can’t fix!

Richard Isserman, Creve Coeur

A point of contention

It’s pointless to argue with Rabbi Yonason Goldson’s thoughts expressed in his Jan. 16 Jewish Light commentary (“Cremation vs. burial: Preserving human dignity in life and death”) claiming cremation is prohibited by Jewish law, in view of the Bronze Age reasoning expressed in his bestselling book “Dawn to Destiny.” 

However, in arguing against cremation, he makes the false claim that it is environmentally unfriendly. He is wrong on at least two points. The vast stretches of land being locked up for graves is itself an environmental problem. There are five million graves in Queens, N.Y. alone and the number of dead exceeds the living by two to one in this crowded area of America. Furthermore, the new process of “water cremation” uses much less energy than heat cremation and releases little pollution. My best friend’s body was returned to the earth last year in this way, honoring his lifelong commitment to science and the environment.

Norman Pressman, Crystal Lake Park